Little Wonders
by JCapshaw
Summary: Callie has Huntington's & Arizona is head of the Huntington's Clinical Trial. Will the genetic disease put their relationship in jeopardy?
1. Chapter 1

"You ready, Sofia?" I called out, tying my hair back in a messy ponytail. I smiled at the Dora the Explorer bag that sat in front of me. It was too cute. I grabbed the small, pink lunchbox and packed it into the backpack as my 5 year daughter came running out of her room with a tiara on.

"Oh no, dress up day! Take your clothes off." I rushed into mine and Calliope's bedroom, grabbing the fairy costume out of one of our recent shopping bags. I dug through and heard the sound of crunching paper. _That shouldn't be in here, _I thought as I pulled the scrunched up piece of paper out. I fixed it so it was at least readable and furrowed my eyebrows at the illnesses that were printed in black on the sheet, revealing that someone's blood test was all negative to the disease. I stopped when I reached Huntington's written in red, positive. Then I saw her name at very bottom of the sheet of paper, Calliope.

"Oh my god," I gasped. I grabbed the costume out and then threw the sheet of paper back into the bag. I couldn't look at it any more. I felt sick. She's been hiding this from me, let alone the history behind it. If she's already started to show symptoms, how come I haven't noticed?

"Mommy," a soft voice called from the doorway. I turned and saw my daughter flash me a smile when she saw the dress I held in my hands. I converted my face to happiness for my daughter.

"Come here, baby," I say sweetly as she runs over to me. She put her arms in the air and I slid the dress over her head gently, smiling when I saw how gorgeous she looked. I kissed her forehead, "Come on, let's go."

I couldn't get a grip on this situation the whole trip to Sofia's pre-school. My hands her shaking on the steering wheel and everything around me felt like a blur.

"Mommy."

"Uh, yes baby?" I snapped myself out of my thoughts when I heard my daughter call my name from the back seat.

"Is Mama picking me up today?" She asked politely. I could see her in the review mirror watching all the cars go by. She loved being in the car.

"No, baby. Daddy's picking you up from school today," I smile, pulling over on the side of the road in front of the school. I get out of the car and help Sofia out of her car seat. She turned around, waiting for me to place her backpack on her back.

"Come on fairy princess," I take her hand as we walk through the reception door. I get down on my knees and give her a cuddle and a kiss before handing her over to her teacher.

"Love you, Kiddo."

"Love you too Mommy," she waved in happiness.

* * *

><p>"I'm going to ask for something, and I really need for you to think about it."<p>

"Dr Robbins, you're shaking," Webber announced like I had no idea.

"I know and it's because I am going to cry. I'm not going to cry over your intimidation, I'm going to cry because this will mean so much to me if you just think about it," I retort, my voice already croaking. I could feel the warmness of tears welling up in my eyes as I tried to control myself, although I had a good reason for once to cry in front of the chief, let alone any one. He nodded his head, requesting that I announce my thoughts.

"I want to start a Huntington's clinical trial."

He perked his left eyebrow and then repeated, "Huntington's Disease?"

"That's correct, sir," I gulped.

"You work in Pediatric's, Dr Robbins."

"I know sir, but you have to let me do this trial, please, I'm begging you."

Webber gave me a long, intimidating stare before questioning, "Why?"

That one question made me feel as if my legs were too weak to hold my body up. I felt a tear escape and answered, "Callie has Huntington's."

"Dr Robbins, I am-"

"I don't need your consolation Chief. Right now I just need your approval," I sniffed, "or, want."

"She's your wife, this is personal-"

"I'm not asking to be her doctor; I just want to be in the trial. I need to be in the trial. She could have passed the gene onto my daughter and if she did pass it on to Sofia, which we won't know until the future, then Sofia could pass it onto my grandchildren. I want to help find a cure, or just extended their life. Please," I exhale, "I'm begging you."

He gave me another concentrated stare before looking away into the distance. The troubled look on his face concerned me.

"You do understand that this will be the first Huntington's clinical trial at Seattle Grace Mercy West?"

I nodded, "yes."

"What will you do if Dr Torres is deceased before a cure is found?"

"Then I will keep trying. I want this Chief."

"How long has Torres been showing symptoms?" He asked curiously.

"She's around the average age that the symptoms start to show, I'd say she only has 8 years, maybe less," my voice cracked at the last two words. It was barely audible. I sat down in the chair opposite his desk and struggled to keep myself together, just till the end of the conversation.

"And you're absolutely sure she has Huntington's?"

"I looked into her mother's medical files because she never mentioned her mom and she died 9 years ago from Huntington's disease. I'm positive," I wiped away my tears and straightened myself up for Webber's final results.

"I can't trust you to be her doctor on this trial because I'm afraid when you start getting positive feedback that you will do something irrational and mess it all up for the hospital. In other words, you can have the trial, but you can only supervise which ever resident you pick to do Torres' medication."

"Thank you."


	2. Precious Time

We were happy. We were in unbelievably fresh green grass in dressed in white. Callie's skin stood out more than mine did in the white. She was different, but in a perfect way. Her head was resting on my left thigh as I had our beautiful daughter Sofia, who was also in white, seated on my right thigh. I was looking down into Callie's deep, irresistible brown eyes as she was looking into mine. Sofia had her hand in her mouth, struggling to make it through this one photo of our small family.

"Baby," I heard a soothing voice whisper in my ear. I had my arms crossed on the table and my left cheek resting on them. I opened my eyes and followed the voice to see my wife standing beside me, her hand rested on my shoulder, concern written over her face.

"What is it, sweetie?" I lifted my head and rubbed my tired eyes. I had file reports and discharge papers scattered across out living room table. I sighed and started to sort them into piles before placing them in their correct folders.

"You didn't come to bed last night. When I woke up and you weren't there it worried me a little," Callie responded, taking a seat next to me. A portrait behind her stood out on the wall. It was the picture I was dreaming about. Sofia was only 15 months old.

"I'm sorry, I didn't get home till late and then I had all this paper work, I've just been really busy at the hospital lately. My residents have been dismissed for their exam so someone had to do it," I clarified, flashing a small smile. I stood up and kissed her hair on my way to the kitchen.

Callie followed me and leaned against the fridge as I filled a glass of water, "I saw you walking out of the Chief's office yesterday, you looked upset. Is everything okay?" she asked.

I nodded, swallowing the water, "everything's fine, Calliope. Like I said, the residents haven't been around so it's been a little stressful, nothing too horrible. I know you use your interns, but my interns can't seem to do anything right."

Callie smiled and walked forward kissing my lips, "you always do things the hard way," she whispered with a small chuckle, "Ride to work with me?"

"You bet."

* * *

><p>We arrived at the hospital after a pleasant drive. I unbuckled my seat belt and leant down to grab my handbag. From the corner of my eye, I could see Callie flexing her fingers out. There it was; a symptom of Huntington's. I cleared my throat steadily, "sore fingers?"<p>

She broke out of the moment and looked at me blankly, "yeah," she responded uncertain, "I had a long surgery yesterday, just trying to get them back into action."

"Okay," I smiled. I took her hand and kissed it gently, "I hope they feel better."

"They're already starting to," she returned the smile. It was such a beautiful smile, but I could see right through it. She was terrified.

Pretending to ignore my observations, I opened the car door and exited, walking around to the back of the car as Callie met me. I tangled my fingers with hers as we walked to the hospital, both terrified, both lying.

When we swiped our cards I gave her a heart-warming kiss before releasing her.

"Don't stress yourself today, okay?" She smiled.

"Promise," I kissed her again. We walked our separate ways but I couldn't stop thinking about what happened in the car. This is real now; this is no 'what if'. I turned around and watched her back as she continued to walk in her direction. She had her hands balled up into fists. I brushed my long fringe out of my eyes and continued to walk towards the elevators.

"Oh good, Robbins is here," Karev revealed his way of welcoming me into the lift and continued in front of his fellow resident colleagues, "throw a sickness at me, anything you can think of," he begged.

"Sorry, Karev," I apologised, pushing the peds ward floor button in. I stood in front of the small crowd of residents as I waited for my destination.

"Come on Robbins, there must be something," he pleaded more. The elevator rung out loud as it reached my floor. I turned around and looked at the residents, "good luck to you all." I smiled before exiting the lift. I walked to the reception desk and signed myself in then walked to my office, closing the door softly behind me. I threw my coat onto one of the grey sofa's and dropped the folders onto my desk, sighing. I opened one of my drawers and grabbed a fresh set of scrubs out placing them on my desk neatly. My office wasn't flash or big, it was small and comforting. It was only half the size of Webbers. I locked the door and stripped off, putting my scrubs on. I clipped my pager onto my white coat that was holding onto my chair. I grabbed my keys and unlocked my bottom drawer, pulling out a thick file of unsuccessful Huntington's Clinical Trial attempts. I opened the file and exhaled heavily on the first page, it read, 'Huntington's Disease Clinical Trial 2003, Dr Richard Webber, Head of General Surgery,' in bold letters down the bottom of the page the word 'ineffective' made me nervous. If the Chief failed, how am I going to succeed?

I stopped when I heard the sound of my door handle rattling. I closed the file and shoved it back into my drawer.

"Why is your door locked, Robbins?' Mark's familiar voice called out. I grabbed my clothes and threw them into my other drawer where I got my scrubs from and walked over to the door, unlocking it. I opened it and explained, "I was getting dressed."

"Mommy!" Sofia called, reaching towards me from beside Mark. I picked her up and rested her on my hip, flashing Mark a questioning look, "she's supposed to be in school."

"I know and I'm sorry, but I have an emergency surgery, I have to go _now_," he announced.

"Well I can't take her, I'm working!" I informed him, but he started walking, "you're the best, Robbins!" he called out before running. I groaned and picked up my keys and my handbag. I locked the door and closed it behind me.

"I thought you said you can't take me to school?' Sofia asked as I rushed to an elevator.

"I'm going to have to, Sofia. You can't miss school," I said, putting her down. She grabbed my hand as we entered the lift. The trip down was fast and silent but when the doors opened, straight ahead I saw Callie walk out of the Chief's office, "oh no."

She looked worried and shocked. _Please tell me she doesn't know,_ I pleaded to myself as Sofia and I made our way towards her.

"Callie?" She looked up and met my eyes. I still couldn't read what had just happened, I couldn't predict anything, "is everything okay?"

"I just got promoted," she announced, slightly smiling, "I'm Head of Ortho."

"Congratulations," I tried to smile. I had to act as if I thought this was great and that there wasn't a matter in the world, pretend there wasn't Huntington's in our relationship. When we parted she looked down and saw Sofia, "hey baby!"

"What's Sofia doing here?" Callie questioned.

"Mark was apparently too busy to take her to school, so now I have to take her," I said, pulling Callie's car keys out of my handbag.

"I'll take her," Callie smiled, attempting to take the keys from my hand.

I shook my head, "it's okay, Callie. I have time to spare, I can do it."

"No, no," she argued, "I've been wanting to spend some time with Sofia, I'll go." Finally giving in, I handed over the keys and kissed them both on the cheek.

"Drive safely," I waved. When they were out of site, I entered the Chief's office, maybe more dramatically than I planned to originally.

"What on earth, Chief?" I exclaimed. He looked up at me and then back down at his desk, almost as if he's planning to ignore me, "you promoted her!"

"I don't see the reason to why you're so upset, Robbins," he cleared his throat, placing his glasses on the desk and setting his attention on me.

"Huntington's," I reminded him.

"I'm not understanding."

"You're throwing a difficult job at her!"

"I requested the job. I threw the ball and she caught it," he folded his arms, "she's better off with this job, less hours in the OR. If she's starting to show symptoms, she could put patients' lives in danger."

"I know this job, I _have_ this job. Being head of a department is extremely stressful and can take up to months to get used to. I'm afraid this will only make her go backwards, make her drown herself in her Huntington's thoughts," I argued.

"You haven't told her," Webber stated more than asked.

"No," I agreed, "I want to wait until the right time."

He shook his head, "there's no waiting Robbins, she's dying and waiting is wasting time. You tell her about the trial or I do."


	3. Losing Hope

It was 1:43 in the morning and I was going onto my 4th hour of research into this disease. Nearly every website and document I scrolled through all had the standard outline, but I wanted more. It was obvious that no one is on the right track to curing this disease otherwise it wouldn't be this hard to find more information. Of course I had Webber's document, but my constant forgetful memory didn't help with the reminder before Callie and I left work. Finally I came across a list of all the surgeons in the US that have both attempted and failed.

"Have your eyes any closer and I can guarantee you'll be wearing lenses," a voice that sends shivers down my spine whispered into my ear. I lowered my laptop screen, startled.

"Calliope, I didn't know you were up," I turned around in my chair so I was looking up at the woman of my dreams. She squinted at me suspiciously and bent down re-opening my laptop.

"I was just researching for someone who could help me with a cancer patient," I lied while Callie continued to scroll through the list of surgeons. She pointed to my screen, "I hear Jenkins great."

"Jenkins, right. I'll keep her in mind," I smiled as Callie gently placed her hand on my cheek and brushed her thumb against my skin. I placed my hand over hers and brought it to my lips, "you're perfect."

"And you're going to be grumpy if you don't get your cute butt to bed right now. You can do work related stuff at _work,_ just in case you didn't know. I can make better use of your spare time," she winked with that exquisite grin.

"I'd like that," I giggled as I took her hand and towed her into our bedroom. I closed the door and held her against it. She's slightly taller than me, but it never made it an issue when it was my turn to take control. I leaned forward so our noses were millimeters from touching. Feeling her breath on my lips sent shivers down my spine. She caressed my face and closed the gap. Although the room was pitch black, it was never a problem for us to find each other's lips, we could sense it.

She ran her harm hands up my shirt and dug her nails into my back, urging herself into me and walking me backwards until I felt the back of my knees hit the side of the bed, welcoming me into the mattress. She pressed her lips against the right side of my neck and gently bit into my skin. Usually this isn't a problem but I felt like she was being more rough than usual.

"Calliope," I fussed, trying to find her wrists as her nails were digging into my side now, "Callie!"

"What?" She muttered, lifting my shirt and kissing my stomach.

"Babe," I wriggled out of her grip, "you're hurting me."

I reached over and turned one of our bed lamps on. She moved aside so she was no longer hovering over me. I looked at my sides and saw small cuts that her fingernails created, they weren't oozing blood but I could still feel the stinging sensation. I stood up and pushed my shirt back down, looking at my beautiful Latina.

"I'm sorry; I don't know what came over me. I guess I just got a little carried away," Callie exhaled, but refused to make eye contact with me. I could sense the discomfort coming from her, she knew exactly what happened. Increased sexual urges were a symptom.

"I'm okay, Calliope," I kneeled before her and took her hands gently in mine. I smiled as best as I could, "I promise."

With that we exchanged a couple of kisses and got into bed, turning the light off. I pressed my body up against hers since she refused to look at me. I snaked my arm around her waist and kissed the back of her shoulder blade, soothingly.

* * *

><p>I was halfway through reading about Webbers attempt at the clinical trial when I heard a soft knock at my office door. I sighed and rubbed my eyes.<p>

"I wish Adele would give me the same special treatment every time I started a new trial," Webber chuckled and pointed at my neck.

"Damn it," I cussed, "I'm sorry, I completely forgot to cover it up."

He shook his head in an understanding way and took a seat in front of my desk, "you're in over your head, Robbins. Exhaustion before starting the trial is a bad sign."

"7 years of hard work and undisturbed long hours and you couldn't find anything relatively close?"

"Robbins…"

"7 years and nothing," I snarled, "what makes it worse is that this trial was your only priority. I have a daughter and now a wife that have to be my top priorities. I'm going to run out of time."

"You are not the only surgeon in this hospital, Dr Robbins. You have colleagues all around you, close friends. There are also residents who would die to be a part of this clinical trial. You are not alone, Robbins," Webber reassured me, but it didn't take the pressure away; pressure that I was forcing upon myself. He reached forward and took my pen and closed the document.

"Go home, get some rest," he ordered, softly.

"I'm running out time, Chief," I breathed heavily, feeling warm tears spill. I couldn't even bring myself to wipe them away. I felt so weak and helpless.

Webber slipped the folder out of my hands, "I can help find the missing pieces."

* * *

><p>"What have we got?" I questioned aloud as I rushed to put a trauma gown on and gloves.<p>

"Stable 14 year old male…" I looked up watching Callie struggle to make words; another symptom.

"Car versus bicycle, crushed left hand and possible skull fractures-"

"Shut up, Kepner," I ordered, "Calliope?"

"What Kepner said," Callie smiled and continued wrapping the boys handed in a gentle bandage.

"Kepner, page Neuro," I instructed watching Callie. I could see the fear in her eyes, but she looked up at me with a gentle smile, I just couldn't bring myself to return it. I yearned for her to say something, anything.

"Shepherd's on his way," Kepner informed me. Callie taped the bandage and looked at us.

"Great, page me when you've done the x-rays Kepner. Keep me updated."

"Callie-"

"I have to go pick Sofia up, I'll call you." Before I knew it, she was out of my sight.

"Why'd you even page me, Kepner?" I muttered, "the patient was stable and you're an attending."

I ripped my clean gloves off with my trauma gown and threw them in the disposable bin.

"You're head of Pediatrics, I just thought-"

"Only page me if it's an emergency, you're not a baby resident anymore. Don't waste my time."

I marched out of the trauma room.

_She couldn't think_, I kept repeating those 3 words in my head so much I had to grip onto a wall.

"Arizona," a familiar voice called out. I looked to my right and saw my best friend, Teddy Altman, walk towards me with a worried expression, "are you okay? You look like you've just seen a ghost."

"I've been a horrible friend, Teddy," I sighed, running my hand through my hair.

"Horrible or distant?" She questioned, "I think the second one is more accurate. Are you going to tell me what's going on?"

That's when I kept my eye contact with her and realised that I had been both horrible and distant. It made me feel hypocritical considering whenever she had worries or concerns or even bad news, I encouraged her to share her thoughts with me. I have been avoiding any contact with her since I found out about Callie's illness. It's not exactly the easiest or greatest subject for conversation.

"Callie's sick."

"Okay… And what kind of sickness are we talking about because I just walked past her at the elevators and she looked fine."

I sighed and fought the tears, "she has Huntington's. You can't say anything; this is just between you and me. I'm still waiting for her to tell me herself."

"Are you sure?"

"99.9% sure."

"I don't know what to say Arizona, I'm sorry. I can't believe this would happen to someone like Callie," Teddy said. I could easy notice the shaking in her voice, "is there anything I can do?"

"Yes, actually there is."

* * *

><p>"Dr Robbins…"<p>

"Chief!" I chirped, quickly jumping out of my chair and grabbing my movable whiteboard, "you will not believe the contacts Dr Altman found and wrote on here that are willing to support us with anything that we need-"

"Arizona." I stopped my excitement and studied his tranquillity. Except when the Chief calls any fellow surgeon by their first name, it can never be good. _He's going to cut the trial_, I thought to myself.

"There's been an accident."


End file.
